Today's Birthdays 1/4

[do_re_milla]

Posted: 1/4/04 at 4:56pm

Jakob Grimm 1/4/1785 - 9/20/1863 w/brother Carl, German scholars and authors of Grimm's Fairy Tales, source mat'l - Hansel and Grethel, Little Red Riding Hood, Snow White

Sterling Holloway 01/04/1905 - Nov 22, 1992 performer - 1925, 1926, & 1930 Garrick Gaieties; The Grass Harp; film's Thunder and Lightning, Super Seal, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, A Walk in the Sun, Death Valley, Twilight on the Rio Grande, The Merry Widow, International House, Willy, The Life of Riley, The Baileys of Balboa; character voices: Winnie the Pooh, Alice in Wonderland [Cheshire Cat], The Aristocats, The Jungle Book

William Bendix 01/04/1906 - Dec 14, 1964 performer - orig The Time of Your Life; tv's & film's The Life of Riley; Detective Story; Lifeboat; A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur's Court

Jane Wyman 1/4/1914 performer - film's & tv's Academy Award-winning actress: Johnny Belinda [1948]; How to Commit Marriage, Pollyanna, Magnificent Obsession, The Yearling, The Lost Weekend, My Favorite Spy, Falcon Crest, The Incredible Journey of Dr. Meg Laurel; TV hostess: Summer Playhouse, Fireside Theatre; former Mrs. Ronald Reagan

Barbara Rush 1/4/1927 performer - A Woman of Independent Means; tv's & film's Web of Deceit, The Seekers, Superdad, Hombre, Robin and the 7 Hoods, Come Blow Your Horn, The Young Philadelphians, The Young Lions, Magnificent Obsession, When Worlds Collide, Peyton Place, Saints and Sinners, The New Dick Van Dyke Show, Flamingo Road

Dyan Cannon 01/04/1937 performer - The Fun Couple (Jane Fonda); The 90 Day Mistress (Martin Milner); film's The Pickle, Christmas in Connecticut, Caddyshack 2, Author! Author!, Revenge of the Pink Panther, Heaven Can Wait, The Anderson Tapes, Doctors’ Wives, Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice

Scott Robertson 01/04/1954 performer - Mayor; 1994 Damn Yankees

Julian Sands 1/4/1958 performer - film's Leaving Las Vegas, Grand Isle, Naked Lunch, Husbands and Lovers, Room with a View, The Killing Fields

Patrick Cassidy 01/04/1962 performer - Leader of the Pack; & wasn't he a replacement in Blood Brothers?; film's How the West was Fun, Longtime Companion, Love at Stake, Dress Gray, Fever Pitch, Just the Way You Are, Off the Wall, Something in Common, The Bay City Blues, Dirty Dancing

Natascia A. Díaz 01/04/1970 performer - 1994 Carousel; The Capeman; Seussical; 2002 Man of La Mancha

SHOWS THAT OPENED ON THIS DATE:

1924 Future director George Abbott and actress Clara Blandick are featured in Hatcher Hughes' hillbilly feud drama, Hell Bent fer Heaven, which opens today at the Klaw Theatre and goes on to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

1934 Billie Burke produces the first Ziegfeld Follies after the death of founder Flo Ziegfeld. The Follies of 1934 features Fanny Brice, Eve Arden, Buddy and Vilma Ebsen, Jane Froman, Eugene and Willie Howard, and the music of Vernon Duke. It runs 122 performances at the Winter Garden.

1956 The Great Sebastians are Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne, a pair of fraudulent performers with a mind-reading act. This comedy by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse is staged by Bretaigne Windust at ANTA.


ON THIS DAY IN:

1960 French author Albert Camus died in an automobile accident at age 46.

1961 Irish actor Barry Fitzgerald dies today at 73 in Dublin. His first appearance with the Abbey Players was in the role of Capt. Jack Boyle in Juno and the Paycock. His film career began in 1937.

1965 T.S. Eliot is dead in London at the age of 77. He is credited with the revival of poetic drama after penning Murder in the Cathedral in 1935. He also wrote The Cocktail Party, The Family Reunion, and The Confidential Clerk. His book of poems, "Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats," will be the inspiration for the musical Cats opening in 1982.

1976 Yul Brynner stars in the first and only performance of Home Sweet Homer, a musical based on final chapters of The Odyssey, from Mitch Leigh, composer of Man of La Mancha. Despite the presence of La Mancha star Joen Diener, the show closes on opening night.

1981 Another one-performance flop opens and closes tonight: Frankenstein, by Victor Gialanella.

1998 Broadway's Tony Award-winning revival of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum closes tonight after 36 previews and 715 regular performances. Featured in the cast during the course of the show's run have been Nathan Lane, Whoopi Goldberg, and David Alan Grier.

(sources: IBDB, NYT's ON THIS DAY, 440.com’s Those Were The Days, Playbill.com)

Milla